Peter the Great Botanical Garden

The main Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, officially known as the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Komarov Botanical Institute's Botanical Garden of Peter the Great; since 1823 Emperor's Botanical Garden "Императорский Ботанический сад", originally Apothecary Garden "Аптекарский огород"), is the oldest botanical garden in Russia and the best-known one out of botanical gardens of Saint Petersburg, the other two belonging respectively to Saint Petersburg State University and Saint Petersburg Forestry Technical University. It consists of outdoor and indoor collections situated on Aptekarsky Island in Saint Petersburg and belongs to the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is 18.9 ha in area, and is bordered by Aptekarsky Prospekt (main entrance), Prof. Popov Street (second entrance), as well as the embankments of the Karpovka and Bolshaya Neva rivers. Overview The garden, located in Ulitsa Professora Popova, St. Petersburg, Russia, was founded by Peter I in 1714 as a herb garden in order to grow medicinal plants and re-established as a botanical institution under the name Imperial Botanical Garden in 1823, with assistance from John Goldie. Ivan Lepyokhin was in charge of the botanical garden from 1774 until 1802. Beginning in 1855, Eduard August von Regel was associated with the garden, first as Scientific Director and then as Director General (1875–1892). Regel had a particular fascination with the genus Allium, overseeing collections of these plants in the Russian Far East and writing about them in two monographs. More than 60 of the alliums he identified bear his name, e.g., A. giganteum Regel and A. rosenbahianum Regel. Many alliums can be viewed in the Northern Yard of the garden. In 1897 Constantin Georg Alexander Winkler became head botanist at the garden. He then reorganized the herbaria and greenhouse collections. Around 1900, Boris Fedtschenko became head botanist and he organised investigations of various Russian regions including Siberia, Caucusus, Middle Asia and Asiatic Russia. All published in various volumes and books. In 1930, the garden became subordinate to the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and, in 1931, was merged with the Botanical Museum into the Botanical Institute. Greenhouses The garden has 25 greenhouses constructed in 1823–1824. They are numbered from 1 to 28 (No. 5 and No. 25 don't exist; No. 10 and No. 11 are shared).